I Got Your Back
by LadyFern
Summary: Beckett has run countless undercover jobs and this one is no different - just another run of the mill shot at a drug dealer. When things take a turn for the worse and Beckett ends up in the line of fire, Ryan, Esposito and Castle are right there to catch her when she falls. **LOVE reviews pretty please! :D**


**Disclaimer: **All rights to ABC. Nothing is mine...*sad face* But...I did add Ryan and Esposito to my wish list. :D

"Whoa. Clean up nice, Beckett," Esposito said as Beckett walked to her desk, her fire engine red heels clicking on the floor.

Ryan gave a low whistle and stopped what he was doing to lean back in his chair and take in Beckett's short, red hot slinky dress.

"Get a good look, boys?" Beckett smirked. "'Cause this is a once in a lifetime occurrence you're witnessing."

Castle came in and stopped dead in the doorway. His jaw dropped, his eyes bugged. Beckett glared at him and held up her hand.

"No smarmy quips from you."

"At last, my dreams have come true," he said, ignoring her orders. "Why can't you work in that all the time?"

"Can we go now?" Beckett said. "I've got a date with a drug dealer and I wouldn't want to keep him waiting." She grabbed her coat and headed for the parking lot. She hated these shoes already and wanted her leather boots back.

As they drove up to the club in the surveillance van, Beckett adjusted her dress one last time in an attempt to calm the small flutter of nerves in her stomach. Countless undercover jobs had prepared her well for this but for some reason she just couldn't shake the cloud of anxiousness that had followed her around ever since she heard she would be the one going in.

Esposito handed her a small earpiece. "We'll be in your head the whole time."

Beckett tucked it into her ear and let her hair fall over her shoulder to hide it. "Well that's a frightening concept. Try to keep _him_ quiet." She glared at Castle who was playing with his own set of earpiece and microphone. He yelled into the microphone and yanked back as the earpiece screeched in his ear. Esposito chuckled.

"I can't focus if he's yammering in my ear," Beckett said.

"Why, what on earth can you mean?" Ryan chirped.

"I don't yammer," Castle protested. "I provide vital clues, intelligent witticisms and, if the need arises, entertainment."

"Sketchy on the first and second part, definitely true on the third part," Beckett said with a smirk.

Castle sulked. Beckett snickered to herself and as she stepped out of the van, Esposito tapped her on the shoulder. He leaned on the door handle of the van and lowered his voice so only she could hear.

"Good luck," he said. "We've got your back."

Beckett nodded and cast him an appreciative look. As pesky as Ryan and Esposito were, she had come to view them as her brothers – and on occasion, they surprised her by dropping their troublemaking ways and turned over protective. She could take care of herself – everyone learned that quickly enough and she was very clear about it – but it was nice to know the boys had her back and she wasn't alone.

Beckett stepped out of the van, teased her hair one last time, tipped her chin up and took a deep breath.

"Here goes."

The night club, Pulse, was aptly named. The ground trembled from the techno music of the club as she strode towards the red carpet that led up to the entrance. Two bulky guards in black with tattoos scrolled up their arms waited for her. The guard on the left held up a hand and grunted.

"Name."

"Valentina Romanov," she purred. She'd used the Russian alias more than once and it rolled naturally off her tongue. A small level of comfort eased over her at the familiarity of the name, like a wool blanket on a cold night.

The other guard, a black widow tattoo etched on his neck, checked his list. Beckett stared at the tattoo, waiting for it to start moving up the guy's face.

The guard nodded and shuffled aside to let her by.

Beckett stepped inside and her senses went into overload. Music throbbed through her body, thumping in her rib cage. Pink, blue and green strobe lights buzzed and jumped around the room. A veil of smoke wreathed every person in the room. Girls flooded the dance floor, swaying to the music. She wouldn't exactly call what they were doing dancing….

She scanned the room as she made her way to the bar. The bartender gave her a nod while appraising her figure. She suppressed a sneer of disgust at his obvious ogling.

"One martini, two olives," she said, attempting to shout over the music. The bartender moved off to get her drink. She turned to the packed, smoky club and leaned against the bar.

"See him yet?" Esposito asked.

"Nope," Beckett replied. "This place is insane."

Her drink arrived and she cradled the neon blue glass in her fingers, sipping. A dark haired, tanned Hollywood wannabe guy stepped up at her elbow, ordered a drink and mimicked Beckett's posture.

"Should I call the fire department?" the stranger yelled over to her.

"Pardon?"

"You are on fire in that dress."

She laughed a little more loudly than she normally would to drown out her desire to groan.

"What kind of pick up line is THAT?" Castle said in her ear.

Esposito and Ryan shushed him.

"I'm Valentina," Beckett said, shaking hands with the stranger.

"Gorgeous name for a gorgeous woman," the stranger crooned.

"Oh come on!" Castle said.

Sounds of a tussle echoed from her earpiece.

"Shut. Up." Esposito hissed.

A muffled response.

Beckett struggled to keep her composure and drown out the Three Stooges act going on in her ear.

"Does beautiful Valentina have a last name?" the stranger asked.

She swayed towards him a little and watched as his pupils dilated in excitement. Guys were so easy…

"Romanov."

A flicker of recognition flashed across the stranger's face.

"Ah, I've been waiting for you all night. I'm Mark, Mark Egan."

Beckett turned on the girlish giggles, despite how much she hated doing it. She'd just found her target. Now to keep him hooked.

"Wanna go somewhere we can talk? Somewhere…." Egan leaned closer and whispered in her ear, "private."

Beckett bit her lip and looked up at him through her lashes. She slipped her hand down his arm and into his hand, letting him lead her to a back room. Egan shut the door and turned to sidle up to Beckett. As his face drew closer and closer, Beckett's muscles tensed. At the last second, she snapped her fist into his nose. She took advantage of his momentary shock, pinned his arms behind his back, shoved him to the floor and pressed her knee between his shoulder blades.

"Subject contained," she declared. "Esposito, Ryan, bring me cuffs."

Movement from the back corner of the room caught her attention and she tried to turn without letting up on Egan. A thin faced, tall man stepped from behind the dark curtain that surrounded the room, a Glock trained at her head. Beckett silently cursed herself. She should have known that curtain wasn't simply for decoration.

"I believe you're looking for me, Miss Romanov. Or should I say…Detective Beckett."

Beckett knew it was coming. She saw the slight tightening of his knuckles on the trigger, saw the gun buck in his hands. It seemed to happen in slow motion but before she knew it, pain exploded in her chest, robbing her lungs of air. She fell backwards, stunned and gasping.

Chaos erupted in her earpiece but she couldn't discern words. They sounded so far away…

The neon colored room began to fade when Esposito and Ryan's faces floated into her vision. Were they real or just a dream? Esposito looked furious….What was he saying? She forced herself to focus on his voice, on each word as he spoke. Ryan shed his coat, bundled it up and gently pushed it under head. Esposito had grabbed a towel…from where?...and pressed it against Beckett's ribs.

"_Madre de dios_. Stay with me, Kate, come on girl."

"Can't…." she wheezed, struggling against the blinding pain that seared through her body, "breathe."

"I know, sweetheart," Esposito said, his voice tight with worry, "I know. Help is on the way, hold on."

She knew she had pushed it too far this time - Esposito never used pet names with her. She wanted to protest but her lungs burned for air, like she was drowning. She coughed and blood splattered Esposito's shirt.

Esposito's voice cracked as he yelled, "Where's the ambulance!?"

Ryan's warm fingers gripped her hand and she tried to give a reassuring squeeze back.

Beckett began shaking with cold – so cold. Her head drifted off to one side and she lost sight of Esposito and Ryan. All she wanted to do was close her eyes for just a moment…

Esposito cupped her cheek in one hand and forced her to look at him. "No, don't go out on me Mama, don't do it. Just keep looking at me, atta girl."

The medics began swarming around her but Esposito and Ryan stayed by her side. Ryan wouldn't let go. Esposito made sure she kept her focus trained on him. White gloved fingers placed an oxygen mask with sharp efficiency over her mouth and nose. She felt herself being lifted onto a stretcher, watched the lights of the club whirl as she was rolled to the ambulance. The last thing she saw was Ryan, Esposito and Castle as the ambulance doors were closed.

* * *

Beckett woke to the obnoxious, tedious beeping of machines. White walls surrounded her. The sharp tang of bleach and cleaning agents assaulted her. She tried to sit up but her body rebelled, screaming with pain. As she flopped back on the pillow, her hand brushed something soft, something…hairy?

Castle sat on a chair next to her, leaning his arms and head on her bed, his tousled hair brushing against her arm. Light snores drifted from him and she smiled. She ran her fingers through his hair. He jerked up, blinking.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty," she teased.

Castle grinned and kissed her hand, gripping her fingers as if he would never let go again.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Beckett glared at him. "I've been shot Castle, point blanked actually. I feel fantastic."

Castle winced. "I handed you that one."

Beckett started to laugh then gasped as pain flared through her ribs. "Don't make me laugh or I'll shoot you – see how you like it."

"Hey, that could be good for research…albeit painful…"

"I'm happy to help out any way I can as soon as I get out of here. Did you catch the guy?"

Castle nodded. "Yeah, he ran smack into Esposito on his way out the back door. Almost feel sorry for the poor guy. He had a slight problem with tripping and falling violently on the pavement…face first." He winked. "Pretty beat up when they took him away."

Esposito and Ryan stepped in carrying two large pink teddy bears, roses and chocolate, lots of chocolate. Esposito had changed his shirt since she'd last seen him. They poked their heads around the stuffed animals.

"Hey! You're awake!" Ryan said.

"Yeah, but I think the painkillers are making me see things. Are those….?"

Esposito held up his teddy bear. "We figured this might be our only chance to spoil you when you can't do a thing about it, so we thought we'd do it right."

Esposito and Ryan propped the bears up at the foot of her bed.

"Well, uhm…" Beckett struggled for the right words as the bright pink teddy bears stared at her. She couldn't help but see a resemblance in their goofy expressions to the looks she had seen on Ryan and Esposito's faces once or twice.

She did appreciate all that the boys did for her. It must be killing them how close she came to dying today. She cringed – they didn't need more to worry about. There had been so many warning signs that she'd missed tonight. She could have avoided getting shot but she had let her tunnel vision take over, being so close to her target.

"Thank you guys," she said, fully meaning every word.

Esposito and Ryan shoved their hands in their pockets and mumbled, staring at their toes. Their cheeks held a distinct flush but Beckett decided not to tease them about it…for now.

A nurse bustled in, clucking over Beckett's charts.

"Visiting time is over, everyone out."

Esposito and Ryan glanced at each other, then scurried up on either side of her bed and planted a quick kiss on both of her cheeks at the same time.

"Glad you're okay Kate," Esposito whispered.

"Get better soon, okay?" Ryan said.

"Hey," Castle said, indignation ripe in his tone, "you two trying to steal my girl?"

"I'm not your girl, Castle," Beckett growled.

Esposito and Ryan exchanged mischievous looks and snickered to each other as they ducked out.


End file.
